Port Authority Police K-9 Sirius Died in WTC Collapse
by Scott Nyborg

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Officer David Lim was in the basement of World Trade Center Tower One with his explosive detection dog, Sirius. Following the impact of the passenger jet, Lim received a call informing him that an explosion had occurred somewhere on one of the upper floors of the building. Before responding to the call, Lim put Sirius, a yellow Lab, into his kennel, saying You stay there. Ill be back for you. It was the last thing Lim would ever say to his canine partner.

Lim, who has wanted to be a police officer ever since seeing local police eating in his parents Chinatown restaurant, has served New York City in that capacity since 1980. Much of that career has been spent on assignments in the World Trade Center. Lims areas of expertise include structural firefighting, making him ideally suited to work in such an environment. He did not become involved in the citys Police K-9 program, however, until prompted to do so by the TWA flight 800 tragedy in 1996.

Lims first canine partner was a yellow Lab named Lena. After three months of intensive training, Officer Lim and Len became certified as an explosives detection team, and the two were put to work in the various airports of New York City. Lenas working life was cut short due to injury, however, after only three years. Forced to retire his Lab, Lim trained a new partner: Sirius.

Once certified, Lim and his partner were assigned to the World Trade Center. They contributed to the security of the World Trade Center by checking arriving vehicles and packages for explosives as they entered.

Lim and Sirius were busy doing exactly that when the terrorists flew the passenger jets into both of the towers of the World Trade Center. When he received the call that explosives had been activated many floors above him, Lim acted quickly. Unaware that the explosion was actually a result of the impact of a passenger jet, Lim said to Sirius One [bomb] must have gotten by us. His training had taught him to leave his dog behind if an explosive had already been activated, and so he left Sirius in the basement as he rushed to respond to the emergency.

Emerging from the basement into the plaza of Tower One, Lim discovered a body which had evidently fallen from the tower above. As he called in the DOA, all of a sudden another body falls down, Lim recalls. I said, Oh my God, theres got to be other things going on upstairs. Lim abandoned the plaza to hurry up the stairs, intent on helping in the evacuation.

On the 27th floor, Lim stopped long enough to help a wheelchair-bound man, and to call his wife. From there, he went on to the 44th floor, where he witnessed the impact of the second plane into the neighboring building. I was knocked off my feet by the concussion, Lim wrote in a letter to his friends and family.

Everybody starts going down, Lim says simply. He found some injured people on the 21st floor working to make a stretcher. I say theres no time for that, Lim says, and the group continued down the stairs. They had reached the fourth floor when the tower collapsed.

Its like an avalanche of rocks coming down on us, Lim recalls. I feel like Im going to die. Miraculously, however, Lim and the people with him survived the collapse relatively free of injury. They remained trapped in the rubble until rescuers came after 4 or 5 hours, says Lim. [We] still had to traverse the debris mountains to get out. Small fires and gaping holes hindered our escape.

Lim tried several times to get back to the rubble pile to search for Sirius, but firefighters securing the scene would not allow him to approach. It was not until January, four months later, that Sirius body was recovered. Officer Lim hurried to Ground Zero and was finally able to fulfill his promise to his partner by returning to carry him home.

More than 100 Police K-9 teams were present at Sirius memorial service. The ceremony also served as a tribute to the heroic work of Police K-9s across the nation. Sirius metal bowl, which had also been recovered from the rubble, was returned to Officer Lim.

Lim has a new partner: a black Lab named Sprig, and continues to serve at the Holland and Lincoln tunnels despite his harrowing and tragic personal experience on September 11, 2001. Sirius was the only dog to lose his life in the attack that day. He was very special, says Lim. We [Lim and his family] miss him a lot. Today, Sirius spirit lives on in the memory of an entire nation. No explosive was ever set off in the World Trade Center under Sirius watch.